My Teenage Years

A Memory of Withybrook.

My family and I moved to Withybrook in 1960 first of all we lived in 2 all saints close later we moved yo 4 Kirby Lane. 2 All saints Close was the place where I met my future wife she lived at No3 next door. I was 14 years old and Mary was 11 y/old, Mary was Withybrook born and bred she was born up in the woodyard just outside the village before moving to No3 with her Auntie. the first time i saw her my twin brother walked up our new garden and suddenly there was a scream from next door and a girl shouting "There's boys living next door". Three girls at the bedroom window, little did I know I would be marrying one of them a few years later. I well recall the old bridge with sandstone topping where we all carved our names shame it had to go. We'd go across the fields next to the Church this field was called the damns. I remember a story that there was a monk who lived in the Church who committed suicide he is said to be buried in the brook near to the bridge that leads to the Church. Mary went to Bedworth School while I went to Newbold, I would get home first then cycle up to the five turns and give Mary a lift down home on my cross bar, the hill going down into the village was a bit of a challenge but we always managed to stop somehow, more luck than judgement. I remember the Butchers van and the grocer van coming around potato picking, My first Pint in the Half Moon.
P J Buckby

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